Fates and Changes
by labyrinthofsuffering11
Summary: Can Hermione save him, or is everything controlled by fate? Books and movie, AU for the fact that later on in the story, Hermione will be using the Time-Turner to go back in time, as well as some of this story takes place before and after HP series. Severus/Hermione, but I can't decide yet if it will be friendship or relationship yet. Give it a chance, and I think you'll like it c:
1. Chapter 1

AN: I started this story as a one-shot, but I think I'm going to make it a multi-chapter. It is rated T for now, and I don't think it'll get to be an M. If it does, it will probably only be for violence. This is not really going to be a Severus/Hermione relationship, but maybe it will turn out to be afer a LONG friendship. I don't know, still haven't decided yet. I do not own Harry Potter, that belongs to J.K. Rowling, beloved author of my childhood. I do not own Safe and Sound, it is performed by Taylor Swift and someone else, The Civil Wars, I think? Please remember to rate and review! And now, the story!

"_I remember tears streaming down your face when I said I'll never let you go._

_When all those shadows almost killed your light."_

May 2, 1998

Hermione Granger was alone. She never thought she would ever say that phrase again at Hogwarts after first year, unless she was in the library. But today, it seemed to be happening quite frequently. It was certainly not her friends' faults, because there was a war going on here. The Battle of Hogwarts had collided smack dab with the Trio's goal of destroying the last of Voldemort's horcruxes. She had no way of knowing the state of her friends. Ron was in the chamber, last she knew, and Harry was in Ravenclaw tower. She was searching for the snake, but the other 2/3 of her Trio did not know that. They would have forbidden it.

Hermione was outside the Whomping Willow, but she had gotten no closer than twenty feet away. There was something pulling her towards the tree, but it was dangerous. Lupin had told her after he had resigned one night how to freeze the tree, but the problem was getting under the branches.

Hermione squeezed her eyes shut and took off at a bit of a run for the trunk. SMACK! She had run into the trunk, knocking her backwards onto the ground. She blinked. Had she really made it unscathed? No time to waste. Hermione searched the trunk with her fingers, until she located the biggest knot and pushed. Just like that the branches paused, and a secret door moved up into the trunk so she could pass into the passageway.

_Well, this is a nicer way than jumping in after Harry_, she mused. She followed the passageway down until she reached the door for The Shrieking Shack. Hermione was about to pull on the handle, until she heard a hiss. She pressed her ear to the door for a better listen.

"Well, Severus, you have been a faithful servant, but only I can live forever," Voldemort said. An inaudible hiss came from the Dark Lord's lips and she heard a gasp, that sounded like the Potions Master. Hermione could hear the snake striking him. Well, she could not barge in on him now. That would not do the Trio any good if she got injured as well as failing to get the snake. So, she waited until she heard Voldemort disapparate.

Hermione quickly opened the door to find her former Potions professor on the ground, covered in blood. She dropped to the floor beside him on her knees. "Oh, professor. I am so sorry." Tears started to well in her eyes, and she pushed some of his greasy black hair away from his neck to inspect the wounds.

She had to cover her mouth to keep from gasping out loud. The snake had brutally attacked the man. He was losing too much blood, and there was too much venom in his veins to do anything for him. The tears were coming in earnest now. "I will not leave you," Hermione promised.

"Ms. Granger," he gasped, "Where is the rest of your incessant Trio? They are not protecting their Gryffindor princess?"

"Sarcastic even in the face of death." She smiled thinly.

"_I remember you said 'Don't leave me here alone', but all that's dead and gone and passed tonight." _

"Please, Ms. Granger, even if I detest your know-it-all mentality, do not leave me here alone. Make sure my body gets discovered, and also give my memories to Mr. Potter. Do you understand?"

Hermione nodded, and said, "But professor, I have nothing to collect them with."

Professor Snape rolled his eyes. "Search my pockets in my robes, I always keep a spare vial."

She quickly located it and placed the vial beneath his tear ducts. The memories flowed into the glass and she became memorized by the silvery quality to them. "They are so pure..."

She did not realize she said that out loud, until her professor said, "Did you really think me a Death Eater? I thought you were brighter than that."

_"Just close your eyes, the Sun is going down. You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now."_

Professor Snape was gasping and wheezing more frequently now.

"Shhh, please stop talking, professor. You are only making it harder on yourself. Just close your eyes and relax. It does not matter anymore about sides."

"No, I suppose it does not, does it?" he mused.

"_Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound." _

Hermione sat there and looked at him. "I have always wanted to ask you whether you really hated us or not. I know Harry and Ron thought so many a time."

Professor Snape turned to face her. "I-" he paused to cough, "cannot say I did not hate you, but I think as you grew up, I did not as much. I came to realize-" he stopped and wheezed, his eyes rolling in the back of his eyes. Hermione knew the professor did not have long.

"Someone will come to us. We are safe."

"_Don't you dare look out your window, darling, everything is on fire. _

_The war outside our door keeps raging on."_

Hermione saw blasts from spells being fired from all sides outside the window of the Shrieking Shack and she started to tear up again. Her friends did not know where she was. They could be dead right now.

"Ms. Granger, perhaps it might help if you did not look out the window?" Professor Snape suggested.

Hogwarts was on fire. There were fire-y pieces of debris floating on the night air, catching some other things on fire as well.

Snape looked at her once more and gasped, the breath draining from him with one final movement. Hermione cried in spite of herself. She clutched the vial in her hand. She did not want to leave him here alone, but there was a part of herself that knew she had to give her professor's memories to Harry. So, she picked herself up and went off on a search to find her friend.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: I know that Hermione did not go with Harry into Snape's memories, but here I am going to have her do it, because it will make sense later on in the story. And for the part of Snape's memories, the passage will be taken directly from the book, so I don't own that. Here is the next chapter! As always, rate and review, and I don't own Harry Potter, the lovely J.K. Rowling does that :)

May 2, 1998

Hermione was a woman on a mission. She needed to find Harry, and fast. She gripped the vial of Snape's memories tightly in her fist, and clutched her wand in her other hand.

She moved along the lake as quickly and quietly as she could, trying not to draw attention to herself. She made her way to the castle, ducking around curses flying through the air, trying to scope out one of her best friends. She started walking into the castle itself, only to narrowly miss an Avada Kedavra curse by inches.

Hermione frantically searched around for the source of the curse, and was frustrated to come up empty-handed. "I have got to keep a clear and alert mind," she scolded herself. She started to climb the staircase to Ravenclaw tower when Luna Lovegood stopped her.

"If you're looking for Harry, he's not here," she said calmly.

"Where is he then?" Hermione questioned.

"He's gone to look for Ron and you, he said."

Hermione groaned. She told Ron she had gone to the bathroom ages ago, which probably meant they were wandering the grounds frantically searching for her.

"Thanks, Luna."

Luna nodded and skipped off in the direction of a flash of light, wand at the ready.

Hermione stopped for a moment, leaning against a bit of wall, trying to collect her thoughts and form them into a logical course of action. "Right, if I were Harry and Ron, and I was not in the bathroom, where would I go to look?" Suddenly the idea dawned on her. "The library!" she exclaimed out loud.

She rushed off in the direction of the Hogwarts library. To her delight, both of the boys were among the Restricted section calling Hermione's name.

"Harry! Ron!" she yelled, waving her hands excitedly. Her friends looked in the direction of their names being called, and they sported huge grins when their eyes landed on Hermione.

"Hermione!" they ran towards her. Harry got their first, sweeping her into a large hug, with Ron following close behind, hugging her fiercely.

"We thought-" Harry started to say, but he could not finish. She nodded.

"I know, I thought the same of you guys. But Harry, there's no time to waste. I have Professor Snape's memories, and you are to look at them."

"Look at them? But Hermione, how did you even get them in the first place? He didn't hex, did he?" Harry started rattling off a million questions a minute.

"Harry, I'm fine, really. He did not really saw why you _had_ to, he just told me it was very important for you to see them."

Harry nodded and looked first at Hermione, then at Ron. "Let's go to the Headmaster's office, then."

The Trio fell into step beside each other easily and came to a stop at the Headmaster's office. They were shocked for a moment to discover the gargoyle in front of the staircase knocked over, but Harry quickly recovered and asked, "May we go up, please?"

The gargoyle groaned, but let the staircase appear. The Trio climbed quickly and opened the door. They stood around for a minute, each deeply absorbed in their own memories about this place, some solitary, and some that were shared. They noticed the portrait of Dumbledore behind the desk smiling brightly at them.

Harry walked over to the cabinet that contained the Pensieve and opened it quietly. The silver disk floated gently into the center of the room, captivating its audience for a moment before Hermione handed the vial to Harry.

"I think I might have to do this one alone," Harry addressed his friends.

"Actually, Harry, if you don't mind, could I go with you?" Hermione asked.

Harry gazed at her confused for a moment.

"I will tell you later, when there's time. But please?"

Harry nodded his agreement, so she took his hand and stodd beside him while he poured the memories into the Pensieve. The memories coated the basin and the pair watched the silvery vapors dance for a moment, and with one last assurance to Ron that they would be back shortly, they ducked their heads in.

T_hey fell headlong into sunlight, and their feet found warm ground. When they straightened up, they saw that they were in a nearly deserted playground. A single huge chimney dominated the distant skyline. Two girls were swinging backward and forward, and a skinny boy was watching them from behind a clump of bushes. His black hair was overlong and his clothes were so mismatched that it looked deliberate: too short jeans, a shabby, overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown man, an odd smocklike shirt. Harry moved closer to the boy. Snape looked no more than nine or ten years old, sallow, small, stringy. There was undisguised greed in his thin face ashe watched the younger of the two girls swinging higher and higher than her sister._

_"Lily, don't do it!" shrieked the elder of the two. But the girl had let go of the swing at the very height of its arc and flown into the air, quite literally flown, launched herself skyward with a great shout of laughter, and instead of crumpling on the playground asphalt, she soared like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up far too long, landing far too lightly._

_"Mummy told you not to!" Petunia stopped her swing by dragging the heels of her sandals on the ground, making a crunching, grinding sound, then leapt up, hands on hips. "Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!" _

_"But I'm not," said Lily, still giggling. "Tuney, look at this. Watch what I can do."_

_Petunia glanced around. The playground was deserted apart from themselves and, though the girls did not know it, Snape. Lily had picked up a fallen flower from the bush behind which Snape lurked. Petunia advanced, evidently torn between curiosity and disapproval. Lily waited until Petunia was near enough to have a clear view, then held out her palm. The flower sat there, opening and closing its petals, like some bizarre, many-lipped oyster._

_"Stop it!" shrieked Petunia._

_"It's not hurting you," said Lily, but she closed her hand on the blossom and threw it back to the ground._

_"It's not right," said Petunia, but her eyes had followed the flower's flight to the ground and lingered upon it. "How do you do it?" she added, and there was definite longing in her voice._

_"It's obvious, isn't it?" Snape could no longer contain himself, but had jumped out from behind the bushes. Petunia shrieked and ran backward toward the swings, but Lily, though clearly startled, remained where she was._

_Snape seemed to regret his appearance. A dull ush of color mounted the sallow cheeks as he looked at Lily._

_"What's obvious?" asked Lily._

_Snape had an air of nervous excitement. With a glance at the distant Petunia, now hovering beside the swings, he lowered his voice and said, "I know what you are." _

_"What do you mean?" _

_"You're. . . you're a witch," whispered Snape._

_She looked affronted. "That's not a very nice thing to say to somebody!" She turned, nose in the air, and marched off toward her sister._

_"No!" said Snape. He was highly colored now, and Harry wondered why he did not take off the ridiculously large coat, unless it was because he did not want to reveal the smock beneath it. He flapped after the girls, looking ludicrously batlike, like his older self._

_The sisters considered him, united in disapproval, both holding on to one of the swing poles, as though it was the safe place in tag. _

_"You are," said Snape to Lily. "You are a witch. I've been watching you for a while. But there's nothing wrong with that. My mum's one, and I'm a wizard."_

_Petunia's laugh was like cold water. "Wizard!" she shrieked, her courage returned now that she had recovered from the shock of his unexpected appearance. "I know who you are. You're that Snape boy! They live down Spinner's End by the river," she told Lily, and it was evident from her tone that she considered the address a poor recommendation._

_"Why have you been spying on us?" _

_"Haven't been spying," said Snape, hot and uncomfortable and dirty-hairedin the bright sunlight. "Wouldn't spy on you, anyway," he added spitefully, "you're a Muggle." _

_Though Petunia evidently did not understand the word, she could hardly mistake the tone._

_"Lily, come on, we're leaving!" she said shrilly. Lily obeyed her sister at once, glaring at Snape as she left. He stood watching them as they marched through the playground gate, and Harry and Hermione, the only ones left to observe him, recognized Snape's bitter disappointment, and understood that Snape had been planning this moment for a while, and that it had all gone wrong. . ._

_The scene dissolved, and before Harry and Hermione knew it, re-formed around them. They were now in a small thicket of trees. They could see a sunlit river glittering through their trunks. The shadows cast by the trees made a basin of cool green shade. Two children sat facing each other, cross-legged on the ground. Snape had removed his coat now; his odd smock looked less peculiar in the half light._

_". . . and the Ministry can punish you if you do magic outside school, you get letters. But I have done magic outside school! We're all right. We haven't got wands yet. They let you off when you're a kid and you can t help it. But once you're eleven," he nodded importantly, "and they start training you, then you've got to go careful." _

_There was a little silence. Lily had picked up a fallen twig and twirled it in the air, and Harry knew that she was imagining sparks trailing from it. Then she dropped the twig, leaned in toward the boy, and said, "It is real, isn't it? It's not a joke? Petunia says you're lying to me. Petunia says there isn't a Hogwarts. It is real, isn't it?" _

_"It's real for us," said Snape. "Not for her. But we'll get the letter, you and me." _

_"Really?" whispered Lily._

_"Definitely," said Snape, and even with his poorly cut hair and his odd clothes, he struck an oddly impressive figure sprawled in front ofher, brimful of confidence in his destiny._

_"And will it really come by owl?" Lily whispered._

_"Normally," said Snape. "But you're Muggle-born, so someone from the school will have to come and explain to your parents." _

_"Does it make a difference, being Muggle-born?" _

_Snape hesitated. His black eyes, eager in the greenish gloom, moved over the pale face, the dark red hair._

_"No," he said. "It doesn't make any difference." _

_"Good," said Lily, relaxing. It was clear that she had been worrying._

_"You've got loads of magic," said Snape. "I saw that. All the time I was watching you. . ." His voice trailed away; she was not listening, but had stretched out on the leafy ground and was looking up at the canopy of leaves overhead. He watched her as greedily as he had watched her in the playground._

_"How are things at your house?" Lily asked._

_A little crease appeared between his eyes. "Fine," he said._

_"They're not arguing anymore?" _

_"Oh yes, they're arguing," said Snape. He picked up a fistful of leaves and began tearing them apart, apparently unaware of what he was doing. "But it won't be that long and I'll be gone." _

_"Doesn't your dad like magic?" _

_"He doesn't like anything, much," said Snape._

_"Severus?" A little smile twisted Snape's mouth when she said his name._

_"Yeah?" _

_"Tell me about the dementors again." _

_"What'd you want to know about them for?" _

_"If I use magic outside school-" _

_"They wouldn't give you to the dementors for that! Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban. You're not going to end up in Azkaban, you're too-" He turned red again and shredded more leaves. Then a small rustling noise behind Harry made him turn: Petunia, hiding behind a tree, had lost her footing._

_"Tuney!" said Lily, surprise and welcome in her voice, but Snape had jumped to his feet._

_"Who's spying now?" he shouted. "What'd you want?" _

_Petunia was breathless, alarmed at being caught. Harry could see her struggling for something hurtful to say. "What is that you're wearing, anyway?" she said, pointing at Snape's chest. "Your mum's blouse?" _

_There was a crack. A branch over Petunia's head had fallen. Lily screamed._

_The branch caught Petunia on the shoulder, and she staggered backward and burst into tears._

_"Tuney!" But Petunia was running away. Lily rounded on Snape. "Did you make that happen?" _

_"No." He looked both defiant and scared._

_"You did!" She was backing away from him. "You did! You hurt her!" _

_"No...no, I didn't!" _

_But the lie did not convince Lily. After one last burning look, she ran from the little thicket, off after her sister, and Snape looked miserable and confused. . ._

_And the scene re-formed. Harry and Hermione looked around. They were on platform nine and three quarters, and Snape stood beside him, slightly hunched, next to a thin, sallow-faced, sour-looking woman who greatly resembled him. Snape was staring at a family of four a short distance away. The two girls stood a little apart from their parents. Lily seemed to be pleading with her sister. Harry and Hermione moved closer to listen._

_". . . I'm sorry, Tuney, I'm sorry! Listen-" She caught her sister's hand and held tight to it, even though Petunia tried to pull it away. "Maybe once I'm there-no, listen, Tuney! Maybe once I'm there, I'll be able to go to Professor Dumbledore and persuade him to change his mind!" _

_"I don't want to go!" said Petunia, and she dragged her hand back out of her sister's grasp. "You think I want to go to some stupid castle and learn to be a-a. . . " Her pale eyes roved over the platform, over the cats mewling in their owners arms, over the owls, uttering and hooting at each other in cages, over the students, some already in their long black robes, loading trunks onto the scarlet steam engine or else greeting one another with glad cries after a summer apart. "you think I want to be a-a freak?"_

_Lily's eyes filled with tears as Petunia succeeded in tugging her hand away. "I'm not a freak," said Lily. "That's a horrible thing to say." _

_"That's where you're going," said Petunia with relish. "A special school for freaks. You and that Snape boy. . . weirdos, that's what you two are. It's good you're being separated from normal people. It's for our safety." _

_Lily glanced toward her parents, who were looking around the platform with an air of wholehearted enjoyment, drinking in the scene. Then she looked back at her sister, and her voice was low and fierce. "You didn't think it was such a freak's school when you wrote to the headmaster and begged him to take you." _

_Petunia turned scarlet. "Beg? I didn't beg!" _

_"I saw his reply. It was very kind." _

_"You shouldn't have read-" whispered Petunia, "that was my private-how could you-?" _

_Lily gave herself away by half-glancing toward where Snape stood nearby._

_Petunia gasped. "That boy found it! You and that boy have been sneaking in my room!" _

_"No-not sneaking." Now Lily was on the defensive. "Severus saw the envelope, and he couldn't believe a Muggle could have contacted Hogwarts, that's all! He says there must be wizards working undercover in the postal service who take care of-" _

_"Apparently wizards poke their noses in everywhere!" said Petunia, now as pale as she had been flushed. "Freak!" she spat at her sister, and she flounced off to where her parents stood. . ._

_The scene dissolved again. Snape was hurrying along the corridor of the Hogwarts Express as it clattered through the countryside. He had already changed into his school robes, had perhaps taken the first opportunity to take off his dreadful Muggle clothes. At last he stopped, outside a compartment in which a group of rowdy boys were talking. Hunched in a corner seat beside the window was Lily, her face pressed against the windowpane._

_Snape slid open the compartment door and sat down opposite Lily. She glanced at him and then looked back out of the window. She had been crying._

_"I don't want to talk to you," she said in a constricted voice._

_"Why not?" _

_"Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore." _

_"So what?" _

_She threw him a look of deep dislike. "So she's my sister!" _

_"She's only a-" He caught himself quickly; Lily, too busy trying to wipe her eyes without being noticed, did not hear him._

_"But we're going!" he said, unable to suppress the exhilaration in his voice. "This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!" _

_She nodded, mopping her eyes, but in spite of herself, she half smiled._

_"You'd better be in Slytherin," said Snape, encouraged that she had brightened a little._

_"Slytherin?" One of the boys sharing the compartment, who had shown no interest at all in Lily or Snape until that point, looked around at the word, and Harry, whose attention had been focused entirely on the two beside the window, saw his father: slight, black-haired like Snape, but with that indefinable air of having been well-cared-for, even adored, that Snape so conspicuously lacked._

_"Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" James asked the boy lounging on the seats opposite him, and with a jolt, Harry realized that it was Sirius. Sirius did not smile._

_"My whole family have been in Slytherin," he said._

_"Blimey," said James, "and I thought you seemed all right!" _

_Sirius grinned. "Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the_

_choice?" _

_James lifted an invisible sword. "Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart! Like my dad." _

_Snape made a small, disparaging noise. James turned on him. "Got a problem with that?" _

_"No," said Snape, though his slight sneer said otherwise. "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy-" _

_"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" interjected Sirius._

_James roared with laughter. Lily sat up, rather flushed, and looked from James to Sirius in dislike. "Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment." _

_"Oooooo. . ." James and Sirius imitated her lofty voice; James tried to trip Snape as he passed._

_"See ya, Snivellus!" a voice called, as the compartment door slammed. . ._

_And the scene dissolved once more. . . Harry and Hermione were standing right behind Snape as they faced the candlelit House tables, lined with rapt faces. Then Professor McGonagall said, "Evans, Lily!" _

_They watched Harry's mother walk forward on trembling legs and sit down upon the rickety stool. Professor McGonagall dropped the Sorting Hat onto her head, and barely a second after it had touched the dark red hair, the hat cried, "Gryffindor!" _

_Harry heard Snape let out a tiny groan. Lily took off the hat, handed it back to Professor McGonagall, then hurried toward the cheering Gryffindors, but as she went she glanced back at Snape, and there was a sad little smile on her face. Harry saw Sirius move up the bench to make room for her. She took one look at him, seemed to recognize him from the train, folded her arms, and firmly turned her back on him._

_The roll call continued. Harry and Hermione watched Lupin, Pettigrew, and Harry's father join Lily and Sirius at the Gryffindor table. At last, when only a dozen students remained to be sorted, Professor McGonagall called Snape._

_Harry and Hermione walked with him to the stool, watched him place the hat upon his head. "Slytherin!" cried the Sorting Hat._

_And Severus Snape moved off to the other side of the Hall, away from Lily, to where the Slytherins were cheering him, to where Lucius Malfoy, a prefect badge gleaming upon his chest, patted Snape on the back as he sat down beside him. . ._

_And the scene changed. . ._

_Lily and Snape were walking across the castle courtyard, evidently arguing. Harry and Hermione hurried to catch up with them, to listen in. As they reached them, they realized how much taller they both were. A few years seemed to have passed since their Sorting._

_". . . thought we were supposed to be friends?" Snape was saying, "Best friends?" _

_"We are, Sev, but I don't like some of the people you're hanging round with! I'm sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev, he's creepy! D'you know what he tried to do to Mary MacDonald the other day?" _

_Lily had reached a pillar and leaned against it, looking up into the thin, sallow face._

_"That was nothing," said Snape. "It was a laugh, that's all-" _

_"It was Dark Magic, and if you think that's funny-" _

_"What about the stuff Potter and his mates get up to?" demanded Snape. His color rose again as he said it, unable, it seemed, to hold in his resentment._

_"What's Potter got to do with anything?" said Lily._

_"They sneak out at night. There's something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?" _

_"He's ill," said Lily. "They say he's ill." _

_"Every month at the full moon?" said Snape._

_"I know your theory," said Lily, and she sounded cold. "Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they're doing at night?" _

_"I'm just trying to show you they're not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are. _

_The intensity of his gaze made her blush._

_ "They don't use Dark Magic, though." She dropped her voice. "And you're being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the Whomping Willow, and James Potter saved you from whatever's down there." _

_Snape's whole face contorted and he spluttered, "Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends, too! You're not going to-I won't let you-" _

_"Let me? Let me?" Lily's bright green eyes were slits. Snape backtracked at once._

_"I didn't mean-I just don't want to see you made a fool of-He fancies you, James Potter fancies you!" The words seemed wrenched from him against his will. "And he's not. . . everyone thinks. . . big Quidditch hero-" Snape's bitterness and dislike were rendering him incoherent, and Lily's eyebrows were traveling farther and farther up her forehead._

_"I know James Potter's an arrogant toerag," she said, cutting across Snape. "I don't need you to tell me that. But Mulciber's and Avery's idea of humor is just evil. Evil, Sev. I don't understand how you can be friends with them." _

_Harry doubted that Snape had even heard her strictures on Mulciber and Avery. The moment she had insulted James Potter, his whole body had relaxed, and as they walked away there was a new spring in Snape's step. . ._

_And the scene dissolved. . ._

_Harry and Hermione watched again as Snape left the Great Hall after sitting his O.W.L. in Defense Against the Dark Arts, watched as he wandered away from the castle and strayed inadvertently close to the place beneath the beech tree where James, Sirius, Lupin, and Pettigrew sat together. But Harry kept his distance this time, because he knew what happened after James had hoisted Severus into the air and taunted him; he knew what had been done and said, and it gave him no pleasure to hear it again. . . He watched as Lily amd Hermione joined the group and went to Snape's defense. Distantly he heard Snape shout at her in his humiliation and his fury, the unforgivable word: Mudblood. _

_The scene changed. . ._

_"I'm sorry." _

_"I'm not interested." _

_"I'm sorry!" _

_"Save your breath." _

_It was nighttime. Lily, who was wearing a dressing gown, stood with her arms folded in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, at the entrance to Gryffindor Tower._

_"I only came out because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here." _

_"I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you Mudblood, it just-"_

_"Slipped out?" There was no pity in Lily's voice. "It's too late. I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends-you see, you don't even deny it! You don't even deny that's what you're all aiming to be! You can't wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?" _

_He opened his mouth, but closed it without speaking._

_"I can't pretend anymore. You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine." _

_"No-listen, I didn't mean-" _

_"-to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?" _

_He struggled on the verge of speech, but with a contemptuous look she turned and climbed back through the portrait hole. . ._

_The corridor dissolved, and the scene took a little longer to reform: Harry and Hermione seemed to fly through shifting shapes and colors until their surroundings solidified again and they stood on a hilltop, forlorn and cold in the darkness, the wind whistling through the branches of a few leafless trees. The adult Snape was panting, turning on the spot, his wand gripped tightly in his hand, waiting for something or for someone. . . His fear infected Harry and Hermione too, even though they knew that they could not be harmed, and they looked over their shoulder, wondering what it was that Snape was waiting for- _

_Then a blinding, jagged jet of white light flew through the air. Harry thought of lightning, but Snape had dropped to his knees and his wand had flown out of his hand._

_"Don't kill me!" _

_"That was not my intention." _

_Any sound of Dumbledore Apparating had been drowned by the sound of the wind in the branches. He stood before Snape with his robes whipping around him, and his face was illuminated from below in the light cast by his wand._

_"Well, Severus? What message does Lord Voldemort have for me?" _

_"No-no message-I'm here on my own account!" _

_Snape was wringing his hands. He looked a little mad, with his straggling black hair flying around him. "I-I come with a warning-no, a request-please-" _

_Dumbledore flicked his wand. Though leaves and branches still flew through the night air around them, silence fell on the spot where he and Snape faced each other._

_"What request could a Death Eater make of me?" _

_"The-the prophecy. . . the prediction. . . Trelawney. . ." _

_"Ah, yes," said Dumbledore. "How much did you relay to Lord Voldemort?" _

_"Everything-everything I heard!" said Snape. "That is why-it is for that reason-he thinks it means Lily Evans!" _

_"The prophecy did not refer to a woman," said Dumbledore. "It spoke of a boy born at the end of July-" _

_"You know what I mean! He thinks it means her son, he is going to hunt her down-kill them all-" _

_"If she means so much to you," said Dumbledore, "surely Lord Voldemort will spare her? Could you not ask for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son?" _

_"I have-I have asked him-" _

_"You disgust me," said Dumbledore, and Harry had never heard so much contempt in his voice. Snape seemed to shrink a little, "You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?" _

_Snape said nothing, but merely looked up at Dumbledore. "Hide them all, then," he croaked. "Keep her-them-safe. Please." _

_"And what will you give me in return, Severus?" _

_"In-in return?" Snape gaped at Dumbledore, and Harry expected him to protest, but after a long moment he said, "Anything." _

_The hilltop faded, and Harry and Hermione stood in Dumbledore's of office, and something was making a terrible sound, like a wounded animal. Snape was slumped forward in a chair and Dumbledore was standing over him, looking grim. After a moment or two, Snape raised his face, and he looked like a man who had lived a hundred years of misery since leaving the wild hilltop._

_"I thought. . . you were going. . . to keep her. . . safe. . ." _

_"She and James put their faith in the wrong person," said Dumbledore. "Rather like you, Severus. Weren't you hoping that Lord Voldemort would spare her?" _

_Snape's breathing was shallow._

_"Her boy survives," said Dumbledore._

_With a tiny jerk of the head, Snape seemed to flick off an irksome fly._

_"Her son lives. He has her eyes, precisely her eyes. You remember the shape and color of Lily Evans's eyes, I am sure?" _

_"DON'T!" bellowed Snape. "Gone. . . dead. . ." _

_"Is this remorse, Severus?" _

_"I wish. . . I wish I were dead. . . " _

_"And what use would that be to anyone?" said Dumbledore coldly. "If you loved Lily Evans, if you truly loved her, then your way forward is clear." _

_Snape seemed to peer through a haze of pain, and Dumbledore's words appeared to take a long time to reach him._

_"What-what do you mean?" _

_"You know how and why she died. Make sure it was not in vain. Help me protect Lily's son." _

_"He does not need protection. The Dark Lord has gone-" _

_"The Dark Lord will return, and Harry Potter will be in terrible danger when he does." _

_There was a long pause, and slowly Snape regained control of himself, mastered his own breathing. At last he said, "Very well. Very well. But never-never tell, Dumbledore! This must be between us! Swear it! I cannot bear. . . especially Potter's son. . . I want your word!" _

_"My word, Severus, that I shall never reveal the best of you?" Dumbledore sighed, looking down into Snape's ferocious, anguished face. "If you insist. . ." _

_The office dissolved but re-formed instantly. Snape was pacing up and down in front of Dumbledore._

_"-mediocre, arrogant as his father, a determined rule-breaker, delighted to find himself famous, attention-seeking and impertinent-" _

_"You see what you expect to see, Severus," said Dumbledore, without raising his eyes from a copy of Transfiguration Today. "Other teachers report that the boy is modest, likable, and reasonably talented. Personally, I find him an engaging child." _

_Dumbledore turned a page, and said, without looking up, "Keep an eye on Quirrell, won't you?" _

_A whirl of color, and now everything darkened, and Snape and Dumbledore stood a little apart in the entrance hall, while the last stragglers from the Yule Ball passed them on their way to bed._

_"Well?" murmured Dumbledore._

_"Karkaroff's Mark is becoming darker too. He is panicking, he fears retribution; you know how much help he gave the Ministry after the Dark Lord fell." Snape looked sideways at Dumbledore's crooked-nosed profile. "Karkaroff intends to flee if the Mark burns."_

_"Does he?" said Dumbledore softly, as Fleur Delacour and Roger Davies came giggling in from the grounds. "And are you tempted to join him?" _

_"No," said Snape, his black eyes on Fleur's and Roger's retreating figures. "I am not such a coward." _

_"No," agreed Dumbledore. "You are a braver man by far than Igor Karkaroff. You know, I sometimes think we Sort too soon. . ." _

_He walked away, leaving Snape looking stricken. . ._

_And now Harry and Hermione stood in the headmaster's office yet again. It was nighttime, and Dumbledore sagged sideways in the thronelike chair behind the desk, apparently semiconscious. His right hand dangled over the side, blackened and burned. Snape was muttering incantations, pointing his wand at the wrist of the hand, while with his left hand he tipped a goblet full of thick golden potion down Dumbledore's throat. After a moment or two, Dumbledore's eyelids fluttered and opened._

_"Why," said Snape, without preamble, "why did you put on that ring?" It caries a curse, surely you realized that. Why even touch it?"_

_Marvolo Gaunt's ring lay on the desk before Dumbldore. It was cracked; he sword of Gryffindor lay beside it._

_Dumbledore grimaced._

_"I . . was a fool. Sorely tempted. . . "_

_"Tempted by what?"_

_Dumbledore did not answer._

_"It is a miracle you managed to return here!" Snape sounded furious. "That ring carried a curse of extraordinary power, to contain it is all we can hope for; I have trapped the curse in one hand for the time being." _

_Dumbledore raised his blackened, useless hand, and examined it with the expression of one being shown an interesting curio. "You have done very well, Severus. How long do you think I have?"_

_Dumbledore's tone was conversational; he might have been asking for a weather forecast. Snape hesitated, and then said, "I cannot tell. Maybe a year. There is no halting such a spell forever. It will spread eventually, it is the sort of curse that strengthens over time." _

_Dumbledore smiled. The news that he had less than a year to live seemed a matter of little or no concern to him. "I am fortunate, extremely fortunate, that I have you, Severus." _

_"If you had only summoned me a little earlier, I might have been able to do more, buy you more time!" said Snape furiously. He looked down at the broken ring and the sword. "Did you think that breaking the ring would break the curse?" _

_"Something like that. . . I was delirious, no doubt. . ." said Dumbledore. With an effort he straightened himself in his chair. "Well, really, this makes matters much more straightforward." _

_Snape looked utterly perplexed. Dumbledore smiled. "I refer to the plan Lord Voldemort is revolving around me. His plan to have the poor Malfoy boy murder me." _

_Snape sat down in the chair Harry had so often occupied, across the desk from Dumbledore. Harry could tell that he wanted to say more on the subject of Dumbledore's cursed hand, but the other held it up in polite refusal to discuss the matter further. Scowling, Snape said, "The Dark Lord does not expect Draco to succeed. This is merely punishment for Lucius's recent failures. Slow torture for Draco's parents, while they watch him fail and pay the price." _

_"In short, the boy has had a death sentence pronounced upon him as surely as I have," said Dumbledore. "Now, I should have thought the natural successor to the job, once Draco fails, is yourself?" _

_There was a short pause._

_"That, I think, is the Dark Lord's plan. Lord Voldemort foresees a moment in the near future when he will not need a spy at Hogwarts? He believes the school will soon be in his grasp, yes. And if it does fall into his grasp," said Dumbledore, almost, it seemed, as an aside, "I have your word that you will do all in your power to protect the students at Hogwarts?" _

_Snape gave a stiff nod._

_"Good. Now then. Your first priority will be to discover what Draco is up to. A frightened teenage boy is a danger to others as well as to himself. Offer him help and guidance, he ought to accept, he likes you much less since his father has lost favor. Draco blames me, he thinks I have usurped Lucius's position. All the same, try. I am concerned less for myself than for accidental victims of whatever schemes might occur to the boy. Ultimately, of course, there is only one thing to be done if we are to save him from Lord Voldemort's wrath." _

_Snape raised his eyebrows and his tone was sardonic as he asked, "Are you intending to let him kill you?" _

_"Certainly not. You must kill me." _

_There was a long silence, broken only by an odd clicking noise. Fawkes the phoenix was gnawing a bit of cuttlebone._

_"Would you like me to do it now?" asked Snape, his voice heavy with irony. "Or would you like a few moments to compose an epitaph?" _

_"Oh, not quite yet," said Dumbledore, smiling. "I daresay the moment will present itself in due course. Given what has happened tonight," he indicated his withered hand, "we can be sure that it will happen within a year." _

_"If you don't mind dying," said Snape roughly, "why not let Draco do it?" _

_"That boy's soul is not yet so damaged," said Dumbledore. "I would not have it ripped apart on my account." _

_"And my soul, Dumbledore? Mine?" _

_"You alone know whether it will harm your soul to help an old man avoid pain and humiliation," said Dumbledore. "I ask this one great favor of you, Severus, because death is coming for me as surely as the Chudley Cannons will finish bottom of this year's league. I confess I should prefer a quick, painless exit to the protracted and messy affair it will be if, for instance, Greyback is involved-I hear Voldemort has recruited him? Or dear Bellatrix, who likes to play with her food before she eats it." _

_His tone was light, but his blue eyes pierced Snape as they had frequently pierced Harry, as though the soul they discussed was visible to him. At last Snape gave another curt nod._

_Dumbledore seemed satisfied. "Thank you, Severus. . ." _

_The office disappeared, and now Snape and Dumbledore were strolling together in the deserted castle grounds by twilight._

_"What are you doing with Potter, all these evenings you are closeted together?" Snape asked abruptly._

_Dumbledore looked weary._

_"Why? You aren't trying to give him more detentions, Severus? The boy will soon have spent more time in detention than out." _

_"He is his father over again-" _

_"In looks, perhaps, but his deepest nature is much more like his mother's. I spend time with Harry because I have things to discuss with him, information I must give him before it is too late."_

_"Information," repeated Snape. "You trust him. . . you do not trust me." _

_"It is not a question of trust. I have, as we both know, limited time. It is essential that I give the boy enough information for him to do what he needs to do." _

_"And why may I not have the same information?" _

_"I prefer not to put all of my secrets in one basket, particularly not a basket that spends so much time dangling on the arm of Lord Voldemort." _

_"Which I do on your orders!" _

_"And you do it extremely well. Do not think that I underestimate the constant danger in which you place yourself, Severus. To give Voldemort what appears to be valuable information while withholding the essentials is a job I would entrust to nobody but you." _

_"Yet you confide much more in a boy who is incapable of Occlumency, whose magic is mediocre, and who has a direct connection into the Dark Lord's mind!" _

_"Voldemort fears that connection," said Dumbledore. "Not so long ago he had one small taste of what truly sharing Harry's mind means to him. It was pain such as he has never experienced. He will not try to possess Harry again, I am sure of it. Not in that way." _

_"I don't understand." _

_"Lord Voldemort's soul, maimed as it is, cannot bear close contact with a soul like Harry's. Like a tongue on frozen steel, like flesh in flame-" _

_"Souls? We were talking of minds!" _

_"In the case of Harry and Lord Voldemort, to speak of one is to speak of the other." _

_Dumbledore glanced around to make sure that they were alone. They were close by the Forbidden Forest now, but there was no sign of anyone near them._

_"After you have killed me, Severus-" _

_"You refuse to tell me everything, yet you expect that small service of me!" snarled Snape, and real anger flared in the thin face now. "You take a great deal for granted, Dumbledore! Perhaps I have changed my mind!" _

_"You gave me your word, Severus. And while we are talking about services you owe me, I thought you agreed to keep a close eye on our young Slytherin friend?" _

_Snape looked angry, mutinous. Dumbledore sighed._

_"Come to my office tonight, Severus, at eleven, and you shall not complain that I have no confidence in you. . ." _

_They were back in Dumbledore's office, the windows dark, and Fawkes sat silent as Snape sat quite still, as Dumbledore walked around him, talking._

_ "Harry must not know, not until the last moment, not until it is necessary, otherwise how could he have the strength to do what must be done?" _

_"But what must he do?" _

_"That is between Harry and me. Now listen closely, Severus. There will come a time after my death do not argue, do not interrupt! There will come a time when Lord Voldemort will seem to fear for the life of his snake." _

_"For Nagini?" Snape looked astonished._

_"Precisely. If there comes a time when Lord Voldemort stops sending that snake forth to do his bidding, but keeps it safe beside him under magical protection, then, I think, it will be safe to tell Harry." _

_"Tell him what?" _

_Dumbledore took a deep breath and closed his eyes._

_"Tell him that on the night Lord Voldemort tried to kill him, when Lily cast her own life between them as a shield, the Killing Curse rebounded upon Lord Voldemort, and a fragment of Voldemort's soul was blasted apart from the whole, and latched itself onto the only living soul left in that collapsed building. Part of Lord Voldemort lives inside Harry, and it is that which gives him the power of speech with snakes, and a connection with Lord Voldemort's mind that he has never understood. And while that fragment of soul, unmissed by Voldemort, remains attached to and protected by Harry, Lord Voldemort cannot die." _

_Harry and Hermione seemed to be watching the two men from one end of a long tunnel, they were so far away from them, their voices echoing strangely in their ears._

_"So the boy. . . the boy must die?" asked Snape quite calmly._

_"And Voldemort himself must do it, Severus. That is essential." _

_Another long silence. Then Snape said, "I thought. . . all those years. . . that we were protecting him for her. For Lily." _

_"We have protected him because it has been essential to teach him, to raise him, to let him try his strength," said Dumbledore, his eyes still tight shut. "Meanwhile, the connection between them grows ever stronger, a parasitic growth. Sometimes I have thought he suspects it himself. If I know him, he will have arranged matters so that when he does set out to meet his death, it will truly mean the end of Voldemort." _

_Dumbledore opened his eyes. Snape looked horrified._

_"You have kept him alive so that he can die at the right moment?" _

_"Don't be shocked, Severus. How many men and women have you watched die?" _

_"Lately, only those whom I could not save," said Snape. He stood up. "You have used me." _

_"Meaning?" _

_"I have spied for you and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Lily Potter's son safe. Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter-" _

_"But this is touching, Severus," said Dumbledore seriously. "Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?" _

_"For him?" shouted Snape. "Expecto Patronum!" From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe. She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears._

_"After all this time?" _

_"Always," said Snape._

_And the scene shifted. Now, Harry and Hermione saw Snape talking to the portrait of Dumbledore behind his desk._

_"You will have to give Voldemort the correct date of Harry's departure from his aunt and uncle's," said Dumbledore. "Not to do so will raise suspicion, when Voldemort believes you so well informed. However, you must plant the idea of decoys; that, I think, ought to ensure Harry's safety. Try Confunding Mundungus Fletcher. And Severus, if you are forced to take part in the chase, be sure to act your part convincingly. . . I am counting upon you to remain in Lord Voldemort's good books as long as possible, or Hogwarts will be left to the mercy of the Carrows. . . " _

_Now Snape was head to head with Mundungus in an unfamiliar tavern, Mundungus's face looking curiously blank, Snape frowning in concentration._

_"You will suggest to the Order of the Phoenix," Snape murmured, "that they use decoys. Polyjuice Potion. Identical Potters. It's the only thing that might work. You will forget that I have suggested this. You will present it as your own idea. You understand?" _

_"I understand," murmured Mundungus, his eyes unfocused. . ._

_Now Harry and Hermione were flying alongside Snape on a broomstick through a clearcdark night: He was accompanied by other hooded Death Eaters, and ahead were Lupin and a Harry who was really George. . . A Death Eater moved ahead of Snape and raised his wand, pointing it directly at Lupin's back._

_"Sectumsempra!" shouted Snape._

_But the spell, intended for the Death Eater's wand hand, missed and hit George instead. _

_And next, Snape was kneeling in Sirius's old bedroom. Tears were dripping from the end of his hooked nose as he read the old letter from Lily. The second page carried only a few words: could ever have been friends with Gellert Grindelwald. I think her mind's going, personally! Lots of love, Lily_

_Snape took the page bearing Lily's signature, and her love, and tucked it inside his robes. Then he ripped in two the photograph he was also holding, so that he kept the part from which Lily laughed, throwing the portion showing James and Harry back onto the floor, under the chest of drawers. . ._

_And now Snape stood again in the headmaster's study as Phineas Nigellus came hurrying into his portrait._

_"Headmaster! They are camping in the Forest of Dean! The Mudblood-" _

_"Do not use that word!" _

_ "-the Granger girl, then, mentioned the place as she opened her bag and I heard her!" _

_"Good. Very good!" cried the portrait of Dumbledore behind the headmaster's chair. "Now, Severus, the sword! Do not forget that it must be taken under conditions of need and valor and he must not know that you give it! If Voldemort should read Harry's mind and see you acting for him-" _

_"I know," said Snape curtly. He approached the portrait of Dumbledore and pulled at its side. It swung forward, revealing a hidden cavity behind it from which he took the sword of Gryffindor._

_"And you still aren't going to tell me why it's so important to give Potter the sword?" said Snape as he swung a traveling cloak over his robes._

_"No, I don't think so," said Dumbledore's portrait. "He will know what to do with it. And Severus, be very careful, they may not take kindly to your appearance after George Weasley's mishap." _

_Snape turned at the door._

_"Don't worry, Dumbledore," he said coolly. "I have a plan. . ." _

_And Snape left the room. Harry and Hermione rose up out of the Pensieve, and moments later they lay on the carpeted floor in exactly the same room; Snape might just have closed the door._

The pair stood there for a moment, slightly panting.

"What is it?" Ron asked them. "What is it that you know?"


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Sorry to end the last chapter like that, and then leave you hanging for a while. Life gets in the way D: As always, I don't own Harry Potter, much to my disappointment. It's time for the funeral chapter, and with that, it means Hermione is going back in time soon! Rate and review, s'il vous plait.

Hermione woke up in a cold sweat. She pushed the covers off of her sweaty body with shaking hands and rubbed her eyes slowly. She pushed her body over to the side of the rickety bed and walked over to the small mirror over the dresser she shared with Ginny.

Hermione looked at the strange person in the mirror. Was this the same girl that had started Hogwarts seven years ago? She studied her reflection carefully. There were obviously good changes and bad changes. Her buck teeth had been slowly growing together the older she got; they were normally spaced from each other with a slight bow to them, that you only noticed when you looked hard enough. Her unruly locks had started to make themselves more tame-able and were mostly waves now. Under her eyes were perpetual bags, no matter how much sleep Hermione got. They would probably never leave her. Her skin looked more ashen, like she had been through more things in two years than most people in a lifetime. Hermione made her arm rise to the mirror, and carefully peeled the gauze back to examine the permanent scar etched in her arm, courtesy of the late Bellatrix Lestrange.

MUDBLOOD. She could still hear the taunts echo in her head every time she looked upon it. The wound had healed considerably, and she did not really need the gauze anymore, but she felt self-conscious without it.

She felt silly, really, thinking about all the witches and wizards that had lost so much in the war, and here she was worried over a stupid scar. Hermione covered the scar once more and turned away from the mirror. She pulled open the drawers and scanned them for her plain black dress that she had frequented these past few weeks. One of the drawbacks of being ⅓ of the Golden Trio: having to attend all of the funerals. Perhaps the person she felt the worst for was her best friend Harry. Poor Harry gave 90% of the eulogies, even the hard ones. Today, he would be giving one for Professor Severus Snape, as well as revealing the former Headmaster's portrait.

Harry had gone through hell and back trying to get Snape's portrait invoked into the Headmaster's office, and to have it ready in time for the funeral. He had gotten less sleep than any of them. Hermione gazed over at the sleeping redheaded female in the other twin bed. She wondered and envied the girl, wondering how she could sleep so much, and so peacefully when everyone had heart racing nightmares. Then again, the girl had gotten sheltered as much as she possibly could for that exact reason. Hermione was glad that her friend had not suffered as much.

George was the worst of the Weasley's. He never slept, especially after Fred's funeral. Hermione could always hear him pacing back and forth in the living room, not even daring to return to the room they had shared. When his body betrayed him and made him sleep, it wasn't for very long before he woke up screaming and sobbing until Mr. Weasley rocked him back and forth and whispered comforting words until he stopped.

Hermione pulled the dress over her head and ran a brush through her hair, being as quiet as possible to avoid waking the other girl in the room. She walked to the door and opened it, shutting it behind her before she continued into the hall and down the stairs.

When she walked into the kitchen, she wasn't very surprised or pleased to see Harry and George sitting at the kitchen table already. "Early birds, eh?" she tried to joke, but the smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

Harry smiled lightly and pointed to the papers in his hand apologetically. "Going through my eulogy. I want to make sure it sounds right."

"Harry, I'm fairly sure anything you said would be right," she reassured the black-haired boy. "But doesn't anyone sleep in this house anymore?"

George looked up slowly to meet Hermione's eyes. "We could ask you the same, 'Mione," he replied, grinning for a split second like his old self before dropping his eyes to the table anymore.

"He's right. How much have you slept these past few weeks?" Harry frowned.

"Enough," she said firmly.

"Are you going to take off the...?" he trailed off, nodding at the gauze.

Hermione pulled her arm under the table quickly. "Not today."

Harry looked at her a few more moments before nodding and returning to his papers.

Hermione trained her gaze on Harry up on the stage Professor McGonagall had provided. A slight breeze rustled her hair and the Whomping Willow in the distance.

"Severus Snape was a greasy-haired bat of the dungeons to many that knew him in his life." A few chuckles rang through the audience. "However, what most did not know, is Severus Snape was an extremely loyal man in everything he did. He defended Hogwarts and Professor Dumbledore until his untimely death, and he never asked for anything in return."

"For most of his life, Severus Snape worked as a double agent, passing essential information from the Death Eaters into Dumbledore's hands. He was entrusted the position of Headmaster, because Dumbledore trusted him absolutely, completely, and limitlessly, and he protected the students to the best of his abilities, as well as delivering to me an important piece of information to defeat Lord Voldemort. Without his efforts, the war might have been lost."

"He was a powerful and brilliant man, becoming a Potions Master fairly early in his life and knowing more curses when he came to Hogwarts than most seventh years. It is easy to say Professor Snape was not an easy man to befriend, but it is up to us to uphold his memory. Remember the services he provided for the good of wizard kind, because we owe him a debt that can never be repaid. I know that his dark past cannot be overlooked, but it is my hope that it is not how you choose to remember him. Remember the devotion to the destruction of the Dark Lord, the guardian, the protector, the hero, the brilliance, the sarcastic Professor that successfully got us through O.W.L.'s, and defender of the Wizarding world. To Severus Snape, the bravest man I ever knew."

Hermione smiled up at Harry and Ron squeezed her hand in reassurance. Yes, they were both still safe, and at least Hermione could be thankful for that.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, if you would follow me to the Headmaster's office, it is time to reveal Professor Snape's portrait in its rightful place." Harry smiled at the face in front of him and stepped off the podium to make his way into the castle. Hermione and Ron stood up immediately to follow him.

After the grand unveiling of the portrait, Hermione was strolling through the Great Hall making pleasant conversation with all the attendants. She was in the middle of explaining the importance of learning the basics of Wingardium Leviosa to a rather rude fifth year Ravenclaw instead of jumping straight into jinxes, when Professor McGonagall interrupted.

"I'm sorry, Regina, but I am afraid I must steal Hermione away from this heated debate. It is of utmost importance."

Regina bowed her head in consent and Hermione confusedly followed McGonagall out of the Great Hall and into the Headmaster's office. The professor paused for a moment in front of Snape's portrait.

"Harry really is quite passionate about doing the right thing, isn't he?" she smiled pleasantly.

"Oh, yes. Its one of the things I enjoy about him, professor."

McGonagall went over to the desk and pulled open a drawer, looking at something intently and finally putting it into her palm. She rubbed her fingers over the device for a moment before speaking.

"Do you remember your third year, when you came to me in hysterics because you couldn't choose between classes?"

Hermione grinned. "Yes, and you said to me 'I have never seen a Gryffindor so interested in school since Lily Potter.'"

"That I did. Well, seeming as how the Ministry destroyed all the Time Turners, except for this one, I think you should keep it."

"Oh, no, professor! I couldn't. That thing drove me mad!" Hermione exclaimed.

"You don't have to use it, Ms. Granger, I just want you to have it. I have no use for it, and I think it's only right that it should see some care."

Hermione reached to take it and placed the chain over her head. Her chest buzzed with excitement from the familiarity. Her magic knew it's purpose.

"Thank you, Professor McGonagall. I'll cherish it forever." She smiled and glanced towards the door.

"Go on then. Wouldn't want to keep your friends waiting."

With one more smile, Hermione turned and walked out of the office.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: I am very sorry, but this story is going on maybe a permanent hiatus. The direction I wanted to take this story in just didn't seem right, and so I'm going to be doing a bit more planning, and maybe even rewriting this story. I'm sorry to the people who followed/favorited this, but a lot of things are going on in my life right now, too much to talk about, and it might be a while before I get everything squared away to start writing again. I just didn't want to leave you in the dark with no idea what happened.


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